Date and Almond Balls ...

 

Anne from Ungardened Moments recently posted a recipe for these yummy treats. We had a tastings session at our Weight Watchers club so I made these balls for everyone to try. They were so yummy!

Head on over to Anne's blog for the recipe

http://ungardenedmoments.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/a-yummy-treat.html

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I am making the family Christmas pudding today. Everything is mixed ready to go then I'll set it steaming for 5 hours.

I'll be back later with some pictures.

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

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Christmas is looming...

 I just can't get into the Christmas swing this year.  I haven't bought one gift yet.  My girls usually prefer money now plus a few stocking stuffers that I get them.  Gus is a hard one, I never know what to get him.  There are a few rellies to buy for too.  I have a Christmas Club account that has a good balance in it so that takes the stress off a bit.

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Living in a small country town makes it difficult to do spontaneous Christmas shopping.  We have no Myer, David Jones, Westfield Shopping centres.  I work every day and our regional centre is 50kms away.  Even there, there is only Target, K-Mart and BigW.  We do have a few gift shops in our town but you can't always find what you want.

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This year  we (the four of us) are going to Melbourne for our Christmas so I will not be with my side of the family for lunch.  This will be strange as I have always done that but this is year it's Gus' turn.  His elderly auntie and his mum are staying in Melbourne and his brother and sister-in-law are going as well so we will join them for lunch at a fancy hotel.  Lunch will be awesome with all the trimmings and No Washing Up or headaches over preparation! Score!

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One thing I have decided to do is make the Christmas pudding for all my sisters to enjoy.  I've been making it for the past couple of years with my Mum but she is no longer able to help as she has Alzheimers disease.  So the fruit (above) has been plumped with 1/2 a cup of brandy and I may make the pudding this weekend.

Christmas Day without that pudding, brandy custard and cream would not be right.

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One thing we will be doing, is going to the Boxing Day
Test to watch Australia v India...

We did this one other year in 2008.  That year we had lunch with my family then drove over to Melbourne in the afternoon so we were there for the Test on Boxing Day.

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Logistically, we will have to take some food to have on Christmas night as no shops/restaurants will be open.  Probably just some cold meats and salads that we can take in eskies and nibbles.  From then on we have all the restaurants in Melbourne at our mercy over the coming days!

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 Of course, Kirby wants to do some shopping on the Saturday morning!

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Of course, I will do my usual Christmas baking of biscuits and goodies.  I just bought a totally unneccessary lovely new book called Sweet Things....

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Look at this yummy Chocolate Salami - its definitely on my to do list!  There are lots of toffee, fudge, caramels, marshmallow goodies in the book so I will be trying some of those too.

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What are you doing for Christmas?  Big family do or just a small soiree??  

Are you in a bit of a Christmas funk?

Cheers - Joolz

Nice, busy weekend...

After gathering my show cooking and pictures from the show, it was back home to a busy time in the kitchen. I forgot to say that my girls were home for the weekend. They came home to see their new little great-cousin Tex and to hang out with his big brother Brax.

Bri had fun with him on the Dragon ride...

...and the Teacups!

Here is cousin Kirby with 12 day old Tex! Such a cutie!

Mmm, I bought my first cherries of the season...

We had Gus' mum out for dinner as she missed Bri's 21st birthday as she was ill. We had steaks with creamy mushroom sauce that I made and a big tossed salad. I also made these twice baked potatoes and I made fresh bread rolls too....

Bake the potatoes in their jackets until tender. Cool slightly, then cut in half. Scoop out most of the potato, leaving a boat shape. Mash the scooped out potato, add an egg yolk, cheddar cheese, sour cream, chives and salt and pepps. Load that back into the potato boats, top with cheese and bake until the cheese is melted and golden. You are welcome!

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I also made a baked vanilla cheesecake at the girls request.

Very nice served with strawberry coulis. Phew, epic dinner!

Sunday for lunch, Gus made lamb kebabs and pistachio mint pesto... I made these flour tortillas so we could have wraps...

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Oh, yummy! We sat out under the pergola and enjoyed the fresh air...

All too soon it was time for the girls to head home again (sad face)! Gus mowed the lawns, whipper snipped down an area of our block and washed his car and I tidied away the house after a busy weekend. Four hours later the girls were safely home.

We had decided on Thai green curry for dinner. I did the prep work and Gus cooked it. This is a great recipe, we enjoy it each and every time we cook it. Even better, there were leftovers for lunch the next day!

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

 

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Show exhibits ...

I entered 'plain biscuits' - I chose Anzacs, peanut butter biscuits and my melting moments shortbread (un-iced). Three of each variety on the plate.

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Banana caked, iced but not decorated...

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Jubilee cake ...

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I entered a Babymac 'Anne' chocolate cake but she failed to score a place...

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My scones also disn't do any good...

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I entered this landscape, taken in the Flinders Ranges...

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This was sunset, taken over Wilpena Pound...
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I love this closeup of my McLeod's Daughters rose...

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I didn't exhibit any roses but the displays were stunning - must be a good year for roses here...

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I picked this bunch from my garden...

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I love the ruffly petals!

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Si, I did quite well at the show.  Next year I will concentrate more on those scones and Jubilee cake!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Catching up...

So, I've got things working on my iPad again... So I'll start off from last weekend (which is where I lost the post)...

I made these ginger snap biscuits with the thought of putting them in our local country show...

They were delicious, but they went rock hard (as in break a tooth off, rock hard)!

Then it was off to lunch with my fiends Helen, Tracey and Mandy. We did lunch at a nice cafe then went to see a movie. Lots of laughs!

When I got home, Gus was washing cars, mowing lawns etc so I was in charge of dinner... This is the kacumber salad I made to go with the dish - onion, cucumber, tomato, chilli, mint and coriander sprinkled with vinegar and sugar to pickle it...

It was a chicken pattie dish from Mr Todiwala's Indian book... I made the mince curry...

...then encased it is a dry mashed potato and bread crumb mix to form the patties...

I made wholemeal chapattis and a yoghurt mint sauce to accompany the patties...

The movie we saw was This is where I leave you - I love a movie with lots of characters, all entwined with a story that comes together in the end. We all loved it - we laughed and got a bit teary too and it had a nice ending. Good chick flick!

Remember Mallory Keaton from Family Ties, played by Justine Bateman...?

Her brother is Justin Bateman, lead role in the movie...

He started off the movie, clean shaven then when things turned to shite and his wife...oops, nealy gave it away!

He grows a beard and looks this handsome for the rest of the film!

I'd give it 4/5 for value entertainment!

 

So now I'm up to date, I'll tell you all about my show exhibits in the next post!

 

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

 

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